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Review

Meant To Be

by Lauren Morrill

First sentences:

There are certain things in life that just suck.

Summary:

Meant to be or not meant to be . . . that is the question.
It's one thing to fall head over heels into a puddle of hazelnut coffee, and quite another to fall for the—gasp—wrong guy. Straight-A junior Julia may be accident prone, but she's queen of following rules and being prepared. That's why she keeps a pencil sharpener in her purse and a pocket Shakespeare in her, well, pocket. And that's also why she's chosen Mark Bixford, her childhood crush, as her MTB ("meant to be").
But this spring break, Julia's rules are about to get defenestrated (SAT word: to be thrown from a window) when she's partnered with her personal nemesis, class-clown Jason, on a school trip to London. After one wild party, Julia starts receiving romantic texts . . . from an unknown number! Jason promises to help discover the identity of her mysterious new suitor if she agrees to break a few rules along the way. And thus begins a wild goose chase through London, leading Julia closer and closer to the biggest surprise of all: true love.
Because sometimes the things you least expect are the most meant to be.

source: Goodreads

My opinion:

This book combined a lot of things I love to read about:

• London, which feels like my second home
• school trips
• certain expectations that might not be fulfilled

Lauren Morrill combines all these and many more in one wonderful YA novel.

On a school trip to London Julia, a straight A student, gets paired with Jason, the class clown and is really not happy about that. Her goal is it to learn a lot during this trip and this is clearly not Jason’s main interest. But thanks to the alphabet, Lichtenstein and Lippincott are right after each other on the class list, those two are now buddies for the entire trip.

I really thought that this book will be just another London based book telling us the story of two teenagers finding love in the land of the Bard. I was wrong! Of course those aspects are part of the book somehow but that was not the main focus.

Julia, a straight A students who is really only interested in school, good grades and her swimming career, joins the school trip to London because for her parents London was a special place. After her dad’s death many years ago she wants to get to know the place her parents loved so dearly and it looks good on her record too. On her first night, thanks to Jason, she gets a bit tipsy at a party and pretends to be a girl she clearly is not. After receiving a text message the next morning from a mysterious Chris she gets to know a whole new side of her.

At the beginning Julia was this shy girl who concentrated too much on behaving well but during the book she changes ever so slightly with each day. She will never be a wild rocker kind-a-gal but she changes and these changes in character, makes this book so interesting. I could not put it down because I needed to know what happens next. With Jason at her side, Julia explores a need side of her and I’m sure that without Jason and his encouragement she wouldn’t have changed at all.

Lauren Morrill manages to write a wonderful teenage school trip story, with characters that I really liked and a storyline that made me smile. That it was set in London too was an added benefit. I not only saw the story evolve before my inner eye, I also knew many of the places and that makes me really enjoy a book. I like it when a book is set in places I know and when I know them so well that I can follow the characters around without concentrating.

If you want to read a wonderful story about growing up, personal development, a school trip and love than try this one. I really enjoyed it.

For more information about Lauren Morrill visit her Homepage, Blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.